foreign cattle are charged full rates. People other than Kóyas and Reddis are charged one-quarter the full rates in Bhadráchalam, one-half in Pólavaram and one anna a head in Yellavaram.
The game rules are in force in the Pápikonda hill (Bison hill) reserve of the Pólavaram division, in order to protect the bison there, which are rapidly disappearing. It is in contemplation to extend the rules in course of time to the adjoining Kopalli and Kovvada blocks.
The Gódávari (and, in a lesser degree, the Saveri) are important waterways for floating timber from forests belonging to other administrations. Native States, zamindars, and private individuals outside the district. But they also flow for many miles through the forests of this Collectorate, and this renders much care necessary to prevent them from being used for the illicit removal of timber from the forests of this district under the pretence that it comes from elsewhere. Inspection tánahs have accordingly been established at which all timber floated down these rivers is checked. Timber brought from forests other than those in this district belonging to Government has to be covered by vouchers signed by the owners of the forests or responsible authorities, and the wood is checked with these.
Fire-protection, always a difficult problem, is rendered doubly troublesome in the Agency owing to the prevalence of the habit of smoking and the existence of pódu cultivation close alongside the reserves. Formerly patrols used to be employed during the fire-season, but during the past two years the money allotted for fire-protection has been spent in inducing the hill folk themselves to co-operate in checking fires, annual rewards being granted to the people of villages the reserves next which escaped damage from this cause. Villages are allotted certain limits within which they are expected to check fires by cutting lines, appointing patrols, and observing and enforcing prohibitions against burning pódus within 100 yards of any forest boundary line, burning the grass under ippa trees to facilitate the collection of the flowers when they fall, and throwing down live cheroot ends. If within the limits thus fixed a fire occurs, the villagers concerned lose their reward. The plan has met with a fair measure of success.
The only artificial reproduction of forests which has been attempted is in the casuarina plantations near the coast. Two large blocks of this tree exist, in which over 85 acres are annually planted up. In the Kandikuppa block, in which the rotation has been fixed at fifteen years, the planting is at
